Masonry Layout

Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp. reaped a record $56 billion annual profit but disappointed some investors by holding the line on share buybacks. Full-year profit, excluding one-time items, jumped 157% from 2021, far exceeding the driller’s prior record of $45.2 billion in 2008, which at the time marked the biggest in US corporate history. The stock initially fell almost 4% in ...

Bloomberg Britain faces the bleakest two years of any major industrial nation with a recession in 2023 and the slowest growth of peers in 2024, the International Monetary Fund predicts. The UK will be the only Group of Seven member whose economy will shrink this year, with a contraction of 0.6%, the IMF said. That makes Britain’s outlook even worse ...

  Bloomberg Falling values are the latest headache for landlords in Europe who need to refinance their debt. It’s a problem for their lenders too. There’s a gap of €51 billion ($55 billion) between the amount owed by commercial property owners across Germany, France and the UK and the credit likely to be available for refinancing when the borrowings mature, ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund reported its biggest loss since the 2008 financial crisis after markets were pummeled by faster inflation, higher credit costs and the fallout from the war in Ukraine. The fund that manages Norway’s fossil wealth lost 14.1% in 2022, equivalent to about $164 billion, according to a statement on Tuesday. It’s the world’s ...

Bloomberg French labor unions are leading a second day of mass strikes and protests on Tuesday against raising the retirement age in a test of the momentum driving defiance to Emmanuel Macron’s signature economic reform. The country’s rail operator, SNCF, expects only one-third of high-speed TGVs to run and urged people to work from home. Subway and commuter trains serving ...

Bloomberg The US and South Korea are planning to step up the scale of their joint military exercises, a move that has in the past prompted threats and weapons tests by North Korea. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-sup agreed in talks Tuesday in Seoul to “further expand and bolster the level and scale of ...

Abu Dhabi / Agencies Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (Adib) announced a net profit of AED3.62 billion in 2022, a 55% increase from the previous year. The bank also reported a 60% growth in Q4 2022 with a net profit of AED1.2 billion, compared to AED728 million in Q4 2021. Adib’s revenue increased by 23% to AED6,835 million in 2022, driven ...

  Dubai / WAM The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has announced the extension of the deadline for private sector employers to rectify unlimited-term employment contracts of their employees to fixed-term contracts. The new deadline now is December 31, instead of February 2. “The decision stems from our belief in enhancing flexibility, competitiveness and ease of business for ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Microsoft UAE on Monday announced their collaboration on Industry 4.0 and broader digital transformation, aiming to set global best practice for the aluminium industry while improving the sustainability of EGA’s computing operations. Both Microsoft and EGA are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s Industry 4.0 Champions ...

  Dubai / WAM National Bonds has signed an agreement with the Arab Women Authority, the leading NGO aimed at empowering Arab women across the Mena region, to equip women with valuable financial management skills and savings tools. The partnership will see the two organisations join forces to empower women and support their role in societal and economic development and ...